Critics of The Write Agenda

P.N. Elrod: “I was about to warn a writer against going with PublishAmerica, then checked his profile. He’s cozy in bed with something I consider to be a hate group/cult/stupid bigots’ club. PublishAmerica is the *PERFECT* place for an asshat’s words! (Facebook, July 31, 2011.)

P.N. Elrod: “ If I’d wanted to name the group I would have done so. You think I want them sniffing around my page? They have search bots in place! (Facebook, July 31, 2011.)

Ann Crispin: “There’s a hate site devoted to trashing Writer Beware. Run by a scammer, yeah, though he’s “anonymous.” <sigh> (Facebook, July 31, 2011.)

Author, Gwendolyn McIntyre: “From my own examination, I have to conclude that The Write Agendaexists solely for the purpose of attacking the Watch Dogs in our community. Robert Fletcher of The Literary Agent Group and C. Lee Nunn of American Book Publishing appear to be the people behind this. Fletcher and Nunn are both on the WriterBeware Thumbs Down list and have been repeatedly flagged as bad news at Predators & Editors.” (April 20, 2011)

Author Renee Miller: “I’m sure they’re really concerned that these guys are gunning for them…not. Ugh. Smart writers see the hard work and concern that the people these guys are attacking put into their efforts to enlighten and education new writers. This is laughable.” (April 20, 2011)

Author Brendan McNally: “Anybody who attacks Victoria or Ann has to be a creep.” (April 20, 2011)

Ann Crispin: “ You might want to check out The Write Agenda site. It’s a hate site, and nothing else, set up by people with an axe to grind against Writer Beware.” (Goodreads, July 16, 2011)

Victoria Strauss: “I have to echo Ann’s caution about being careful with whom you associate yourself. If you’re looking for allies, The Write Agenda is a dubious one to choose. Any overtures it may have made toward you are intended to further its own agenda–to discredit Ann and others who warn about scams in the book publishing world–not to help you with your cause. ” (Goodreads, July 16, 2011)

P.N. Elrod: “Smearing established writers and helpful sites? How professional of them. Sorry, bad guys, you still can’t sit at the cool table with the big kids who have earned it via hard work. Bottom feeders have to stay in the cesspool they made for themselves.” (Facebook, April 20, 2011)

P.N. Elrod: “I expect the bottom feeders will hope that our ‘tude [sic] toward them will cause the site to go viral. Um, no. I’ll not take the bait, but continue to recommend Writer Beware, Predators & Editors, and Absolute Write as solid places to go for real information on professional publishing.” (Facebook, April 20, 2011)

[Note to readers: Be aware, this is how they roll. We don’t really care about their “tude” towards us (The Write Agenda). We (The Write Agenda) have over 9000+ visits to our site daily. It’s not viral but people are watching.]

David Gardner: “It’s unfortunate that sites like The Write Agenda exist, and they do exist for most any subject imaginable. The person or people behind that site clearly have an axe to grind, and it’s personal with them. Arguing with them, and people like them, is an exercise in futility. It’s best to just let them bury themselves in their own innuendo, and fade into the obscurity that they so richly deserve.” (Facebook, April 20, 2011)

[Note to readers: We have no axe to grind and it’s not personal. David, we just want “watchdogs” to be truthful. We’re not arguing. Bury us? We’re not going away.]

Ed Dravecky: “Any writer that thinks ‘factually-based evidentiary proofs’ is an acceptable phrase outside satire is not to be trusted.” (Facebook, April 20, 2011)

[Note to readers: We’ve gone above and beyond the weinerdogs to provide factually-based evidentiary proofs. Moreover, it’s not satire. Keep suckling the breasts of the weinerdogs Ed. Ed is on the Propaganda Watch List and the Defamation Watch.]

Rebecca Stefoff: “Just as with the nitwits that troll the evolutionary biology sites, I’ve decided to ignore these chuckleheads rather than give them blog hits and fuel for their self-righteousness.” (Facebook, April 20, 2011) [Note to readers: on the Propaganda Watch List.]

Julie Smith Dolcemaschio: “Best to ignore them. Just coming in on this, I am a true neutral party. They sound paranoid at best. Ig-nore. (Facebook, April 20, 2011)

[Note to readers: We sound paranoid? See the comments below.]

Ed Dravecky: “Apparently, I’m on the Write Agenda‘s propaganda watch list for, um, well they don’t list a reason. I’m honored to be in this elite company (alongside P.n. Elrod,[sic] Teresa Nielsen Hayden, and Writer Beware) but honestly have no idea why I’m listed. And TexasSF.org is a convention listing, pure and simple. Very strange. (Facebook, June 2, 2011)

[Note to readers: Yes Ed, you are. Who’s paranoid now? Oh, how we conveniently throw ourselves into the role of a victim. Seems like Ed needs to review his prior postings.]

Teresa Hayden: “Word to the wise: a new outfit calling itself The Write Agenda has been taking potshots at Victoria Strauss, Ann Crispin, our own Jim Macdonald, Absolute Write, Writer Beware, Preditors and Editors, SFWA,Atlanta Nights, and other entities that give newbie writers helpful information about the scams and nogoodniks that prey on them. To state the obvious, The Write Agenda is not the kind of company you want to keep. For one thing, they’re attacking some of the best and most helpful resources for aspiring writers. For another, it looks like the site is either being run by Robert Fletcher of The Literary Agent Group, or C. Lee Nunn of American Book Publishing. Maybe it’s a collaboration. In any event, Fletcher and Nunn are both bad news.”

Teresa Hayden: “The Write Agenda has been following Making Light bloggers and commenters who have Twitter accounts. Patrick and I blocked them when we found them in our followers list. If you find them in your own list, do whatever amuses you most.They’ve [sic] also posted a string of new blog entries denouncing me, Jim Macdonald,Yog’s Law, Ann Crispin, and other usual suspects, and an open letter to SFWA in which they misspell multiple names, grossly misquote Jim Macdonald and Robin Bailey, and demand that SFWA discipline, expel, and repudiate Ann Crispin, Victoria Strauss, and Jim Macdonald in order to preserve SFWA’s good name. They do get one thing right, probably by accident: they point out that there’s an element of the argument ad hominem in my own remarks about the Write Agenda. That’s true! There is! And furthermore, it’s valid! There’s a long history of bad behavior on both their parts that tells us that if Robert Fletcher and/or C. Lee Nunn are associated with a project, prudent writers shouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.

[Note to readers: More paranoia? Block us. You really don’t want to seek the truth do you? ]

Victoria Strauss: “ I shouldn’t complaint—[sic] I’d rather have the mosquitoes than the spraying.”

[Note to readers: Teresa, even the” weinerdogs” have typos. We never claimed to be perfect. That’s what editors are for. Did you miss this one?]

J. H. Woodyatt: “I’ve browsed their site, and it gives off the unmistakable odor of psychosis. I shudder to think what the world would be like if people like that were to meet with success in their clearly insane efforts to bury the world under an archeological layer of their bullshit. Now, I’m sure to have nightmares about the coming zombie publishing-scam apocalypse. Braiiinzzz!

Tom Whitmore: “A group of people who style themselves as writers who claim they’ve become “‘literally’ numb” on their front page? Why do I think they’re not particularly competent at what they’re doing — is it the scare quotes, or the lack of even an attempt to craft a convincing narrative?”

Victoria Strauss: “Are these the same people I noticed were trolling the Writer Bewareblog? I’d say yes. We have a pretty good hunch as to who that person is. Ann and I have been aware of The Write Agenda for a while. We haven’t responded mainly because, despite Mr. Agenda‘s intensive efforts (he follows my every Internet move), he hasn’t been able to scrape up much visibility. He’s probably gotten more traffic today than in the entire time his blog has been up.”

[Note to readers: More paranoia? Victoria Strauss has no clue who The Write Agendais. For the record, she has not responded because her reputation as a “watchdog,” (i.e. weinerdog) is at stake. Yes, we do follow her every move. Obvious? 9000+ visitors a dayVictoria Strauss. Who wouldn’t follow a “weinerdog” that posts false accusations. If anything is becoming visible it’s Victoria Strauss’ disregard for the truth. Click here.]

Victoria Strauss: “Also.. they are using a screencap of Writers Beware, which starts right below the, warning, ‘THE CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION’ Which just sort of begs for a takedown notice. I’m not bothering with this, because he’d just put up the post again, without the screen capture. The capture also includes the entirety of my warning about American Book Publishing, which might inspire a thinking person to put things in context.”

[Note to readers: Think about this one. Why doesn’t Victoria Strauss and the SFWA take us on this one? Why? Because it’s lawsuit bait. It’s false and they know it’s false. If they called us on it they know that there would be a countersuit. The “warning” about American Book Publishing has been proven false. Click here for more information.]

Victoria Strauss: “If you’re curious and want a laugh. Most of the recent stuff is aimed at me.”

[Note to readers: False and unproven accusations are hardly something to laugh at. UntilVictoria Strauss takes responsibility for these false claims, she remains a target that we will aim at.]

Ann Crispin: “Re: the C. Lee Nunn allegations that Writer Beware fabricated Ms. Nunn being investigated by the authorities. One would think that Mr. Write Agenda, having been exposed to Writer Beware‘s extensive documentation and organized record-keeping a couple of years ago (and, after being exposed to it, dropping his lawsuit with a dull thud) would realize that Writer Beware never makes claims without documentation to back them up.”

[Note to readers: Propaganda? Firstly, is the assumption is that we were ever “exposed” to the “extensive documentation” of Writer Beware. Honestly, we have not. Secondly, we’ve never been in a lawsuit with Writer Beware (yet). Thirdly, Writer Bewarehas made fabricated “claims without documentation to back them up” (click here) and we have proven that fact. Fourthly, more ad hominem. Seeing a pattern here? She never directly addresses the fabrication claim and goes directly into an off topic smoke screen.]

Dave Kuzminski: “it’s [sic] clear that they’re trying to make it appear that Yog’s Lawdoesn’t apply to everything so they can ignore it and their victims will believe they’re doing everything correct in order to get published even if that means paying.

[Note to readers: A comment from the infamous and notorious Dave Kuzminski? One would think that he had learned his lesson (click here). We have effectively addressedYog’s Law (click here) and addressed its fallacies. We never said that it doesn’t apply to anything. It does have its applications in limited circumstances. If you are not a “traditionally” published author and you choose “untraditional” means to publish your book it doesn’t necessarily make you a “victim.” ]

James D. Macdonald:“If you claim that you’ve “disproved” Yog’s Law, or that you’ve found “a fallacy” in Yog’s Law, or that Yog’s Law “doesn’t apply,” either you’re a scammer, you’re a dupe of scammers, or you have no clue about publishing.

[Note to readers: Concered here? Notice the effort to affect Google results and influence Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts? Paranoia? Obviously, The Write Agendahas become a concern to the “weinerdogs.”}

James D. Macdonald: “But bringing up American Book Publishing? That's a blast from the past. I'd almost thought Cheryl was out of business. Could just be a smokescreen, because if Mr. Write Agendaonly talked about Bouncing Bobby we'd know right away who it was. Incidentally, since ol' Agenda tried to disprove Yog's Law, I Googled on "Yog's Law," and guess what I found! Someone else tried to do the same thing, three weeks ago. Our old pal Dick Tate of Tate Publishing.

[Note to readers: American Book Publishing is hardly “a blast from the past.” However,Macdonald, Strauss, Crispin and the SFWA want it to be. We did prove that their allegations are false (click here). American Book Publishing is not out of business. More paranoia (smokescreen)? We didn’t “disprove” Yog’s law. We did demonstrate its fallacies. More Google searches on Yog’s Law? More paranoia? Do you think that Macdonald feels that his world is being threatened? Yes, Richard Tate also has issues with Yog’s Law.]

James D. Macdonald:Goodness! An open letter to SFWA? This almost makes me want to go look. I wonder how it stacks up against the old Forum? Now those were letters! Have they actually sent this letter? Or (gutless wonders that they are) do they realize that sending it would reveal their names?

Victoria Strauss: “Someone alerted me to the Wiki vandalization last night. I’m not surprised–Mr. Agenda has also posted complaints about me to ComplaintsBoard.com and RipoffReport.com, issued fake press releases urging people to boycott my books, and attempted to start mirror blogs to disseminate his silly posts about me. He just started a LinkedIn group. It reminds me of the boy who threw rocks at me on my way home from school when I was eight. My mother told me it was because he was really in love with me. Sorry, Mr. Agenda, I’m already married.”

[Note to readers: Fake Press releases? No, they are very real. Ironic when their own strategies are used against them; the “weinerdogs” don’t like it. We’re not throwing rocks. We’re just asking Victoria Strauss to come clean . . . tell the truth. Is there a problem with that? Honestly, we do love Victoria Strauss. There’s no intention to spoil her marriage. However, something was lost in “watchdog” land that needs to be rectified.]

James D. Macdonald: “Of course. Anonymous cowards can’t handle honest comments. In the fullness of time we’ll discover which scammer this one is. There are no secrets in this world. It’ll come out.”

Amy Sterling Casil: “I’m still in Washington and just saw this, so I suppose the frequency of my checking my own name can be known. As the recipient of this type of harassment for a number of years now – these folks don’t quit. Just wanted to point up the fact that the Atlanta Nights proceeds so far have gone to the Emergency Medical Fund. That’s worth about 100,000 defamatory nattering nabobs.

[Note to readers: This is seriously a joke and one of the greatest propaganda BS efforts put out by a SFWA officer yet. Notice that there are not any $$$ mentioned in the purported “Atlanta Night proceeds”? (Click here for more information.)

[Note to readers: The Write Agenda monitors the activities of publishing industry “watchdogs.” We are not a “scam publisher.” We are not associated with any publisher. Paranoia? If Ann “A.C.” Crispin wants to call it “stalking,” fine. We’ll continue to call it monitoring.]

Shawn Murphy: “Wow, a ‘watch list’ that tells people not to trust people and organizations that speak out against publishing scams, but don’t list the scammers as someone to watch out for. That’s sleazy.” (Facebook, June 2, 2011)

[Note to readers: Sorry Shawn, but when the people and organizations that you trusted report false information . . . that’s sleazy (click here). Shawn’s commentary is a good example of how some individuals get sucked in and eventually become “flying monkeys.” ]

Victoria Strauss: “We at Writer Beware are 99% certain who “The Write Agenda” is–not a group of bloggers, but a scammer who is the subject of warnings from us (and many others). Mr. Agenda is bravely hiding behind an anonymous blog in order to throw daggersat [sic] those he believes are his enemies. (You’ve moved way up the list, Ed–Mr.Agenda‘s Facebook page now links to your post. Likely he saw it because you mentionedWriter Beware–he monitors us obsessively.) Most of the people on the so-called “propaganda watch list” are folks who warn about literary scams, people who’ve posted on Absolute Write/Writer Beware/Making Light, or writers who’ve said non-positive things about disreputable publishers (such as Strategic Book Publishing). But the list also includes people who don’t seem to have connections to any of these. Go figure. Maybe Mr. Agendajust didn’t like their profile pics.”

[Note to readers: Sorry Victoria Strauss, you got it wrong again. We are in fact a “group” that is growing daily and you need to face the reality that your lies have caught up to you. Complain all you want about our choice to be anonymous, you also never complained about Miss Snark, The anonymous Literary Agent. Honestly, we have no enemies. We’re just trying to get you to tell the truth. More paranoia (Click here for more information.]

P.N. Elrod: “Ed–the worst thing you can do is call attention to that (qualified noun). I got one of his creepy anonymous mails threatening legal action against one of my blogs. The guy is mental. Don’t drive traffic to that site, please!”

[Note to readers: Watch this one closely. Don’t “call attention” to The Write Agenda. Paranoia? The creepy email? Apparently, she thinks that it was Strategic Book Group’s President Robert Fletcher. P.N. Elrod had made several defamatory statements on her blog but deleted them out of fear of litigation. No, actually it was one of our associates that asked if she really wanted to stick her toe into that “litigious pond.” It was not Robert Fletcher. Paranoia? Calling someone “mental” and requesting that people not “drive traffic” to our site speaks for itself. We are currently getting over 9000+ visitors per day.]

NOTE TO READERS: Writer Beware’s Comments Policy is another example of how the “weinerdogs” selectively play by the rules . . . even their own.

“Writer Beware actively monitors comments on this blog. If you make a comment, we will see it, even if it’s on a post from 2005, when we first started blogging. However, because we want to foster discussion and acknowledge alternative viewpoints, we have a very liberal comments policy, and don’t do much moderating. Anyone is welcome to comment, including people who vehemently disagree with us. We delete comments ONLY in the following, extremely limited, circumstances:

- If they’re personal insults, either of us or of other commenters.

- If they’re libellous.

- If they’re spam.

- If they’re obvious self-promotion. If someone told you that leaving a link to your book in blog comments was a good marketing strategy, you probably shouldn’t be taking their advice about other things, either. [Note to readers: It’s a non-profit site that utilizes non-profit resources, However, who posts links to their own books? Victoria Strauss andAnn "A.C." Crispin.]”